Anna Maria Nápoles Named to a Key Post at the National Institutes of Health

The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities has appointed Anna Maria Nápoles as scientific director of its Division of Intramural Research. Dr. Nápoles, a behavioral epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, is the first Latina to be named a scientific director at the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Nápoles has been a professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco since 2001. She has focused on conducting health disparities research and developing community interventions for underserved ethnic minority groups in the United States, with a focus on Latino health. Dr. Nápoles also served as the director of the university’s Center for Aging in Diverse Communities.

Dr. Nápoles is a graduate of Pomona College in Claremont, California, where she majored in psychology. She holds a master of public health degree and a Ph.D. in epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley.